Page 168 - Muscle & Fitness (February 2020)

FLEX_PROFILE

Xanax and things like that” were
Julius Maddox wasn’t just your average user.
what Maddox says he took. “I

I would take it to the extreme.
I lived the lifestyle of taking
The gargantuan powerlifter explains how he overcame prescription pills and actually on
substance abuse to set a bench press world record. the other side of it, too—traffick-
ing drugs and pills. So it’s been a
long journey to get to where I’m
IN THE POWERLIFTING a 744-pound raw bench press, at today.”
community, there aren’t many meaning he didn’t use any gear
athletes who have had to over- other than wrist wraps. But in WEIGHT ROOM
come the same obstacles as order to get his name into the THERAPY
Julius Maddox. record books, the 32-year-old For Maddox, hitting the weights
The Owensboro, KY, native had to first free himself from the wasn’t just an escape from drug
and bench-pressing behemoth grips of depression and addic- addiction and depression, lifting
set a world record in 2019 with tion. “Opioids and benzoids like became his means of survival.

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